Sunday 24th June 2018

The orchid season and the World Cup means having to make some serious choices on how to spend my (our) time, in that at lunchtime on Sunday, England were due to play the might of Panama, and I wanted to watch that. But then there are the Pyramidals along the clifftops between St Margaret's and Kingsdown that I spotted last year walking with Tony. (yes, you get in the blog more now than wen you were here!).

So the answer to this conundrum was to be out of the house and at Dover Patrol soon after the first cup of coffee and before breakfast.

I'm sure you are impressed.

And with the weather being hot and still, would be perfect for any macro work I might want to do.

We park at the monument, and go to the bench near the cliff edge, me inspecting the area around for orchid spikes. We find a few, but no worry, we will see hundreds between here and Kingsdown.

I was also looking for Marbled White butterflies, and we do see a couple, but even at this fairly early point in the morning, they were flighty and I only get a decent shot from distance of one with its wings open.

Away in the distance there is a smudge of red showing where a field of poppies might be coming into flower, so it is there we make our way to, without having to say it.

The clifftop is full of wildflowers, most common, but some rarer ones, including lots of Broomrape, a parasitic plant we see lots of at Sandwich Bay. Here it is probably feeding off ground ivy, I guess, but that is just a guess.

The field of poppies turns out to be a field being left fallow for the year, but the upper part of it was thick with poppies. So we walk to the lower path, then besde the golf course where the sound of golf buggies blocks out the call of skylarks.

The field is impressive, although not as it it had been planted on purpose, this is just seeds taking their opportunity and growing where they can. As we walk along the top of the field, we get the best views, goubly so looking back into the sun. We both take lots of shots.

We take as many shots as we need. And then some, and then walk back to rejoin the path over the downs just before butterfly alley, and we remark it had been some years since we had been this way, certainly at the height of butterfly season. Although the number of flowers growing beside the farm track is well down, and just a couple of Meadow Browns are on the wing.

We walk on, back up the path leading back to the Monument and our waiting car.

Back home we make more coffee and warm up croissants, and we can look through the shots we had taken.

Midday was rapidly approaching, so I begin to prepare lunch, steak and chips, so we can all be eaten and cleared up by kick off time at one.

Steak is never bad, not when I cook it, and at lunchtime when we were so hungry it was welcome. We also share a bottle of pink fizz, of course, and again toast our very good health.

We are done by kick off time, and England surge into an early lead, get a penalty, get a third. Then a forth, another penalty. So 5-0 up at half time, Kane getting a hat trick. The second half ends 1-1, with England winning the game 6-1 and a nation was stunned. Although not perfect, it is something that I, as regular readers of these words will know, not being disappointed at football is a new feeling for me.

With the remainder of the afternoon, we sit in the garden and eat redcurrents (from our garden), raspberries and strawberries with cream and a fine coffee.

At five as the second game of the day kicked off, we drove to Whitfield to drop of Jools and pick up John, then settle down for an evening of cards and banter.

No thought was given, by me, to football. Mid-way through the evening, Jen cooked pizza slices and I sip glaces of red wine. Jools and I lose heavily, and have to borrow money from Jen and John. But it was all fun.

We finish at half nine with John scooping the three pots. All done.

Nothing left than to go home, dropping JOhn on the way, under the gaze of the three-quarter waxing moon, so yellow and so bright.

A perfect evening, but back home in time to go to bed for another week at the coal face.